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posted by janrinok on Thursday January 13 2022, @07:12AM   Printer-friendly

Should Microsoft sell Windows and Office? This former exec believes so:

A former Microsoft executive has offered up some advice for current CEO Satya Nadella: spin off Windows and Office and focus on Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing crown jewel.

Ben Slivka, a 14-year veteran at Microsoft who left in 1999, gave the unsolicited advice to Nadella in an interview with CNBC, saying: "The right thing probably is to bet the future on the cloud."

[...] On top of this, Nadella invested heavily in building out Azure and other enterprise-focused offerings to compete with Amazon's AWS and Google Cloud. By some estimates, Azure hold 20% of the cloud market, below AWS' 32% and above Google's 9%.

According to analysts that CNBC spoke to, spinning off Windows and Office would make very little sense. Nadella has built significant and much-needed synergies between Microsoft's various businesses, in such a way that the rise of one boosts the others.

So what do you think?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday January 13 2022, @08:00AM (6 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Thursday January 13 2022, @08:00AM (#1212363)

    The only thing Microsoft have done for at least the last ten, if not fifteen years, is fuck up both Windows and Office more and more. If it was moved out of their clutches it might be safe from further fuckery. So: Roll back to Windows 7 and pre-Ribbon Office, spin them out, and run them in maintenance mode without fucking them up again by adding more and more crap that no-one ever asked for or wanted.

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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday January 13 2022, @10:24AM

    by looorg (578) on Thursday January 13 2022, @10:24AM (#1212383)

    From a user/consumer perspective I would like this. That said I don't think this is in the interest of Microsoft. There is still plenty of cash on the table so to speak in Windows and Office to just walk away from it. I guess there would also be a lot of QQ about it from the alternatives then if Windows and Office became free. I guess it would practically kill all the other options on the spot. No need to run those office clones anymore when the MS office suite is free. I guess Linux and Apple wouldn't complain, they have their locked in userbase already. But a lot of people would probably be fine with Win7 (the last good one) be free. But still it would probably be the whole Netscape Navigator vs Internet Explorer saga in a rerun as far as Office was concerned.

    They could even make it free for consumers while still charging companies and other agencies for it. After all they are usually the once that also get support. So they sort of get what they paid for. But I don't think it's an option really.

    Betting all their option on "the cloud" tho sounds like a great idea .... /sarcasm/

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 13 2022, @06:26PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 13 2022, @06:26PM (#1212460) Journal

    Microsoft needs to ditch the Ribbon interface in Office and other Microsoft software.

    Introducing the new Donut interface. A large Ring pops up (the "donut") in the center of the monitor, taking up most of the visible monitor. With the mouse, you can rotate the donut like a "wheel of fortune" until the correct function is at the top of the wheel ("the winner"). Once the correct function is in the winner square, releasing the mouse button executes it.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday January 13 2022, @06:54PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Thursday January 13 2022, @06:54PM (#1212481)

      Spinning seems utterly superfluous when you can simply move your cursor in the correct direction.

      Eliminate that and you've got a pie menu - they are actually quite nice and efficient to use, and I believe the b.s. patents on the idea should have expired by now.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 13 2022, @08:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 13 2022, @08:20PM (#1212510)

      WinTorus™

      Wait until they reinvent the ball from the IBM Selectric typewriter.

      Is there anything new since Word2K?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Friday January 14 2022, @09:17AM

      by driverless (4770) on Friday January 14 2022, @09:17AM (#1212645)

      Microsoft needs to ditch the Ribbon interface in Office and other Microsoft software.

      Maybe they could gamify it, I hear that's trendy. So you have all 857 buttons from the Ribbon floating around at the top of the screen and you have a cannon at the bottom controlled by the mouse wheel that you use to shoot the one you want to activate, that'd make using a word processor much more fun and engaging!

      Perhaps they could store them in the blockchain for extra cromulence.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @02:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @02:14AM (#1212571)

    The tech giant has added a feature which examines the language being used and highlighting any words that may offend an individual, The Sun reported.

    Word will now highlight no-no words with a purple line beneath any problematic words or phrases that focus on gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity or even "socioeconomic status."

    Red lines are for spelling errors.

    Green lines for grammar mistakes.

    And now, purple lines are politically correct language police alerts.

    If you type a bigoted word like, let's say... "postman," Word will offer less offensive, gender-neutral alternatives like "mail carrier" or "postal worker."

    - Microsoft Word introduces new "woke" feature to monitor your language [notthebee.com]